In fact, if Marin knew Frenzberg's arrangement, he would definitely guess the result. Why? Because there were too many soldiers from the princes!
If thousands of enemy troops are ambushed, they may be able to completely wipe out. However, if 60,000 enemy troops are ambushed on a narrow mountain road... unless the door is closed and the dogs are hit, they will definitely not be able to wipe out. Because there are too many people. Even 60,000 pigs will have to be killed for several days, let alone 60,000 soldiers.
Moreover, the mountain road is narrow, and if you want to chase, you don’t have a wide road to chase. Frederick III sacrificed 30,000 to 40,000 people and blocked the mountain road at once. Frenzberg had no way to chase after him...
However, the coalition of princes gave up the 40,000 people and gave Frenzberg a full meal. It was not that these people were useful, but that these men brought a lot of food, supplies and the gold, silver and treasures they stolen.
Frederick III fled with his coalition forces, so he naturally had no time to take away the food, supplies and treasures. After all, life was important. Therefore, on the road to Basel, abandoned food trucks, carriages and trolleys filled with supplies, gold and silver treasures were everywhere.
Therefore, after intimidating the remaining 30,000 coalition forces, Frenzberg could naturally enjoy the food, supplies, gold, silver and treasures discarded on the road.
Frenzberg happily arranged for his men to take over the food, supplies, gold, silver and treasures, especially those military rations, which originally provided 60,000 troops and 40,000 people with strong food, so there were countless. After obtaining this batch of military rations, Frenzberg's army could eat until next year. As for other supplies and gold, silver and treasures, it was not that important.
Marin once emphasized that during war, food is king! Without food, the army will collapse and the people will starve to death. Therefore, during war, food will always be more important than gold, silver and treasures.
In fact, in the troubled times, the population of the people was sharply reduced not because the people were directly killed by the soldiers, but because the people's food was robbed by the army. Then, a large number of people were starved to death. The few who died of the butcher's knife were actually killed. Of course, although the soldiers did not kill people directly, the people also starved to death because the soldiers robbed food. Therefore, it is not a problem to count the blood debt on them.
Because he kept in mind Marin's teachings, Frenzberg directly asked his subordinates to take the civilians and brave the coalition forces of the princes and transport all the grain trucks into the town of Costa. Then, he waited to transport Lucerne. After the food was transported, he began to transport gold, silver, treasures and other supplies.
...
At this time, the adjutant Karl, who was responsible for counting the number of prisoners of war and casualties, came over with a bitter face. Seeing Frenzberg, Karl said depressedly:
"Sir, we have suffered a lot of casualties this time, nearly three thousand!"
"Three thousand? Not much." Frenzberg was a little surprised. It would be a profit to exchange for the other party's tens of thousands.
Carl shook his head and continued:
"With that being said, there are two thousand of our casualties this time, and they are concentrated in the stormtrooper..."
"This..." Frenzberg also reacted. He led the 3,000 stormtroopers to attack the enemy's most elite knight troops, and there were indeed many casualties. If the guards had not tried to guard the desperately, he might have died. After all, the knights on the opposite side were all masters who practiced martial arts since childhood. It was difficult to avoid heavy casualties when fighting such a strong opponent. However, he did not expect to lose two-thirds of the stormtrooper warriors. You know, the stormtroopers are the most elite warriors under his command. Most of the losses did make him feel very painful.
...
Just when Frenzberg felt sad, Carl continued:
"This is not the most important thing, the most important thing is that our army now has only 12,000 regular troops. The coalition of princes fled about 25,000 troops. Now there is no problem with them running for life in a hurry. But when they recover and run to meet with the French, our 12,000 people can't stop it!"
Frenzberg was shocked - even if the coalition forces of the princes were poor in combat effectiveness, 25,000 troops could cooperate with 20,000 elite French troops and elite Swiss mountain citizens... I now only have 12,000 regular troops, plus more than 4,000 militia... It is indeed a disaster...
I had only cared about the joy of victory before, but until now, Frenzberg discovered in horror that the crisis had not been resolved...
"What to do? What to do?" Frenzberg paced back and forth in a hurry...
And what Carl said next made Frenzberg even more nervous:
"Legislative Commander, I think Frederick III, who withdrew from Basel, must have recovered and guessed that our army was all dispatched to ambush them here. Although the coalition of princes could not counterattack us for a short time due to morale collapse. However, his subordinates were worried that he would send envoys to the French camp west of Lucerne from another way to tell the French that our army was not in Lucerne. At that time, the French would definitely not give up the great opportunity to capture Lucerne."
"Then I immediately ordered to send 10,000 people back to Lucerne to assist in defense. As for the remaining people, they will stay in Costall to take care of the seized supplies and prisoners!" Frenzberg said.
"It's not right, commander of the army, we captured 65,000 prisoners! Only 2,000 soldiers were left, and we couldn't control them!"
"65,000 prisoners? So many? The civilians of the coalition of the princes are only less than 40,000... Could it be..." Frenzberg was a little surprised.
"Yes, most of the 30,000 people in the front army of the princes surrendered. We also caught up with many infantry soldiers behind us. In fact, there were only about 7,000 soldiers who were killed or injured. Moreover, most of them were trampled on due to chaos, and many were killed and injured by stones. There were not many people who died in battle at all..." Speaking of this, Carl's expression was a bit strange.
In fact, the ancient army was like this, and the soldiers were defeated like a mountain. Once they failed, no matter whether you have a large or small number of people, as long as you are defeated, the soldiers will run away. Then, the casualties caused by the trampling of people are much more than the casualties caused by real battles. Especially for the army with a large number of people, this situation is most likely to occur once they are defeated.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content behind! "That means, we now have 25,000 prisoners of war soldiers?"
"No, to be precise, it was 27,000 prisoners of war soldiers!" Carl corrected.
Frenzberg was stunned for a moment, then suddenly asked:
"What kind of troops are these prisoners of war?"
Carl thought for a while and said:
"They are all infantry, with about 18,000 mercenaries and 9,000 recruits with low combat power."
"18,000 mercenaries?" Frenzberg's eyes suddenly lit up. Because, he remembered a story that Marin once told...
That is the story of a 30,000 poor man crossing the Yellow River to fight the invading army...
It is said that when the 30,000 poor soldiers crossed the Yellow River, they were worn out in pieces, their weapons were poor, and their ammunition was insufficient. However, by absorbing heroes from all sides, the army grew stronger and stronger like a snowball. After a few years, it had reached more than one million people. Then, there was capital to compete for the world...
In the story told by Marin, this originally poor army would mobilize some puppet soldiers to join him every time he defeated the enemy, especially a unit called the "Puppet Army", to join him. Those who were unwilling to join would be put back and then captured next time so that they could continue to send equipment...
In addition, this army also absorbs various guerrillas and even bandits. As long as the goals are consistent and the foundation is not too dark, they are basically unstoppable. Therefore, in a few years, they have added millions of troops...
Of course, there are some things they pay attention to when absorbing those troops with little innocence. That is, if they break up and reorganize, they will never let the surrendered soldiers who were originally in a bad position maintain their original system. Moreover, for bandits and surrendered soldiers, they must first clean up the bandit leader and the generals of the surrendered soldiers before accepting those minions. Of course, they must also break up and reorganize...
...
Thinking of this, Frenzberg's heart became hot - can I learn this trick and annex those mercenaries?
Frenzberg obviously looked down on those recruited soldiers, just a group of farmers who had taken weapons, which was the "cannon fodder" that Marin once said.
The mercenaries are different. Most of them are veterans who have experienced battle formations and have certain combat qualities. Moreover, they only fight for money and do not mean to rely on a certain prince. Whoever gives money will work for whom.
Of course, compared with the soldiers of the well-trained Habsburg "Swiss Army" under Frenzberg, these German mercenaries are not enough. On the front battlefield, Frenzberg can guarantee that his soldiers can torture them completely.
However, Frenzberg does not need an elite army that is right in front of the enemy, but a group of soldiers who help defend the city.
And these mercenaries with certain combat experience are the best city guards... cannon fodder...
Although these mercenaries are not as good as the elites under his command, they cannot defeat the elite French soldiers. However, if they are brought to Lucerne to defend the city, there is no problem. After all, relying on the city wall, these mercenaries with slightly poor combat effectiveness can also play a good role...
...
Of course, as Marin said before, these mercenaries who are not loyal enough cannot keep their original system. Because, with the leader, these people will have their own little ones, which will become difficult to control, and may even turn against each other.
So, Frenzberg decided to learn the snowball-growing army in the story of Marin - not to hire mercenaries and generals, break up the mercenary soldiers and reorganize them...
...
After thinking it through, Frenzberg ordered his adjutant Karl:
"Let's go and see the surrendered mercenaries, I'm going to incorporate them!"
...
"Collection of those surrendered soldiers? Are they reliable? They can do anything for money..." Adjutant Carl worried.
"What's there? Didn't we seize a lot of gold and silver this time? Give them! What I want is troops. As long as more than 10,000 troops are added, I will be confident that I can defend the current defense line and no longer let the French move forward. Even the remaining coalition of princes and the French army can still be stopped!"
Chapter completed!